By the same 2-1 vote as last November, Boulder County (Colorado) commissioners approved a new version of their plan to phase out genetically engineered corn and sugar beets on county-owned farmland, says the Boulder Daily Camera. The timeline would eliminate GE corn by the end of 2019 and GE sugar beets by the end of 2021. The plan also includes a five-year phase-out of the use of neonicotinoid pesticides on county property.
Commissioners asked for several alterations to the plan from last Nov. 30, so it now includes a requirement for an annual report and public hearings on progress toward eliminating the GE crops, as well as a requirement that county staff work with tenant farmers to minimize the impact of the policy. “It leaves open the possibility that in the future, Boulder County will consider allowing genetically engineered crops with traits that do not rely on the use of pesticides,” said the Daily Camera, which also reported the county intends to fund a sustainable-agriculture research facility.
Elise Jones, one of the commissioners who voted for the plan, said she was more concerned about the effects of the pesticides used on the crops than about the GE crops themselves. The executive director of the Farmers Alliance for Integrated Resources, whose members include some of the tenant farmers, said the phase-out “is an ideology-based decision and not a science one.”